Ryan LoPilato - Credit Electric Interview
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music?
I was born in the early 90’s in New Jersey. Triple Virgo. I grew up being told by my grandfather I was the heir of Pontius Pilate, and while the rest of my family brushed it off, or ignored it out of difficulty to approach as a Catholic, I believed it. Aside from that it was pretty average, I grew up in the Ramapo Mountains outside New York City. Very beautiful place. I always loved music, and could keep a beat. I always loved MTV as a kid, and sang Tupac, Ja Rule, Limp Bizkit, Beastie Boys, stuff like that.
Was music something that was relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years?
I’m a second gen Grateful Dead fan, my folks are into a lot of tasteful stuff. I rejected it when I was younger for paramount global fanfare, but I came around. Thanks mom, and dad. I have a sister. Bad boy stuff. Isaac Brock, Daniel Johnston, Jason Molina, you know, healthy influences. Also, earlier than that people like Mike Park, and experimental music brought to me by the wonderful people at 91.1 WFMU Radio.
When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music? Did you participate in any groups prior to Credit Electric? How did you initially meet your bandmates and what was the decision to first form the band?
First concert is tough, maybe Green Day, or Streetlight Manifesto. I don’t remember. I spent my life pursuing music by default. I feel like I have to write, and record, it’s become a ceremonial practice. I met Evan Hiller, CE’s pedal steel player, while performing in Afraid, the work of Jakob Battick, I recorded an album with them as a drummer. CE guitarist Cameron Iturri-Carpenter played bass. I had a solo project when I lived in New Jersey, Lo-fi Noise rock type stuff, but I only put out a couple tapes. I met my neighbor Brian Ellis (bass) about 2 years after I moved to Oakland, CA. I started the band with him, and he introduced me to Cameron Iturri-Carpenter (guitar) who became the person I would write, and record with regularly as Credit Electric. We met our buddy Andrew Wakefield and he played drums, the 4 piece made a cassette, but we never put it out. Kevin (known to collapse) recorded it. Then, I met Evan Hiller (pedal steel) thru Afraid, and we added Nathan Smith (bass), and Stephen Boyd (drums, recording, mixing, mastering), and we recorded the debut record and 3 EPs.
When and where did you guys first get together to jam and what was the overall chemistry like? Where did the band play its first show and what was that experience like? Tell me about writing and recording the band's debut album back in 2019.
We started rehearsing at a shared studio space in Oakland. Our friend and collaborater Ben said we were the bicker brothers and we would argue about what and how to write regularly. It was a house show in Oakland, Cameron had the flu. and was extremely sick, but for some reason we still played the show. People seemed to like it, but it was definitely loose. The debut Credit Electric album was co-written with the 5 members Cameron, Evan, Steve, and Nathan in a room and tracked live at tiny telephone studios in San Francisco. It was a record where we learned as a band to support the lyrics, and voice of a song, and honed in our collectivism as musicians, and song writers. Tried to find a middle ground, and I think it was accomplished.
Would you mind giving a brief background to some of the songs that are featured on the record? What was the overall vision for this work and what was your experience of working with Maryam Qudus and Eric Broyhill on the project? The band has a new record coming out in August entitled "Six". Can you tell me about this record and what you guys ultimately wanted to achieve and express with this material?
The record has a lot of under tones of Theravada Philosophy thru the lens of alt-country. We were all listening to a lot of Gram Parsons, The Byrds “Sweet Heart At The Rodeo”, The Band, and I was studying meditation and karma yoga, and we just sort of went for it. Then it ended up partially sounding like a Songs: Ohia record. Eric, and Maryam did an amazing job. I am now a fan of Maryam’s music project Spacemoth. I wanted to start releasing singles bi-monthly, and this project is the first collection of songs for this ongoing routine we are cultivating. Most of the songs were started with just myself, (Ryan), and added members to contribute after the skeleton of the songs were recorded. This collection all has overlapping themes that I invite you to inquire yourself.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
“Help us Help you Become the Air.”
